Embrace My Patient Heart
by The Soft Smell of Rain
Summary: One-shot/drabble. Elena visits Damon after he is released from the torture-session at the Michelson Mansion and they share a tender moment together at the end of their nerve-wrecking day.


Hey everyone:)

Long time no see! I'm really sorry for my long absence, my exams is right around the corner and in addition to that I have suffered from a terrible case of writers block (have started at least five one-shots I haven't been able to finish!). For those of you that are awaiting an update for "This Four Walls", I promise to finish the story and as soon as possible, but I can't promise anything more than that at the moment. Please have patience with me:)

Okay, this one-shot describes a scene I would have wished to have scene at the end of "The Murder Of One". Elena visits Damon after he was released from the vicious clutches of Rebekah. Written exclusively from Damon's point of view, which is new to me so please let me know what you think:)

Please read, enjoy and review:)

Disclaimer: I do not own Vampire Diaries or any of the characters in this story.

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"Millions and millions of years would still not give

me half enough time to describe that tiny instant

of all eternity when you put your arms around me

and I put mine around you "

(Jeques Prevert)

He was laying on his large four-poster bed, his body still weak and sore after spending the better half of the day in the violet claws of an Original vampire, who just happened to be a woman scorn in love as well. Everyone with basic knowledge of vampires and women would know that such a combination would lead to no good, and his body, that had been torn and bloody only hours prier, wholeheartedly agreed with that statement.

He was laying perfectly still on the bed, listing carefully to the familiar sound of light feet tiptoeing over squeaky floorboards. His breath had gone silent while he was listening to the movements of the nightly intruder, following the soft sound of her approach with his keen vampire senses. Surprise hit him when he could hear the footsteps falling to an halt on the other side of his room's massive oak-wood door. His enhanced hearing picked up the soft thudding of her human heart, acknowledging the quickened pace of the vital muscle. No other sounds interrupted the steady pace of her heartbeat, there was no knock on the door, no sudden retreat, no movement at all. Just the strong pounding of her delicate heart.

Several minutes later there was a soft knock at the door, so quiet he almost mistook it for a beat of her wild running heart. Before there was time to grant her access to the room, the door was quietly opened and revealed the dark-haired beauty dressed in her usual jeans and a dark red long-sleeved shirt. Her expression was anxious and strained and he felt an immediate need to reach for her and gently kiss away the frown between her brows. He slowly raised himself from the bed, standing in front of it with his chest bare for her to see the still not completely healed marks on his torso. Her eyes took in the sight of his lean frame and the furrow between her brows grew even deeper with the sight. He waited for her opening line, but not a single word left her plump, rose-colored lips.

"Is there any reason for this midnight visit", he asked with fake ease, a tired smirk resting on his lips, but the gleam of mischief usually accompanying it never making its appearance in his faded sapphire eyes.

There was no immediate answer and he kept his strong gaze on her small frame while her eyes drifted to the ground in front of her and her body tensed and relaxed restlessly with uneasiness. When her eyes eventually pulled from the ground and met his they were soft and warm, his enhanced sight noticing the moistness clouding her irises and making her expanded pupils swim in her chocolate eyes. His heart made a painful twitch at the sight, her tears would never cease to touch him deeply and painfully, even though they were supposed to be on indifferent terms as of late. He took a small step closer to her, prepared to wave the white flag and offer her the sanctuary he believed she so desperately needed, his previous hurt by her hands forgotten with the need to chase away the glittering moistness in her teary eyes.

His eyes barely registered the girl's hasty movements while crossing the oak-wood floor, and then his body was suddenly embraced with a strength and ferocity that surprised him more than any other show of emotion ever had in his unnaturally long life. Her arms pressed tightly around his shoulders and neck, her body perched on its tiptoes to accommodate their difference in height and her face pressed tightly against the warm skin of his neck.

His mind become a total blur, his sensitive senses invaded by the close presence of the girl he loved so wholeheartedly it hurt. The palms of his hands instinctively reached for her slender waist, resting there in surprised excitement and perplexed disbelief. Though it would probably be wisest to gently push her away and ask for the reason behind this new behaviour, in the end he was a slave to his deepest needs for her closeness and affection and his arms slowly wrapped themselves around the slimness of her back.

The experience of having her this near, close enough to feel her steady heartbeat reverberate against the skin of his chest and her deep breathing moulding her stomach and chest to his with every gentle inhale, it was exhilarating without comparison. The deep-rooted love he had so masterly hidden from her disapproving view after that dreadful evening at the Michelson Ball, it flared in his guts and forced its way through his body in a burning inferno of emotion. His gentle embrace tightened around the precious form in his arms, his nose pressing into the luscious softness of her chestnut hair, making himself drown in the scent that for so long had haunted him in his saddest dreams. Saddest because the moment he woke up and would take deep breaths to reacquaint with that glorious scent of life and happiness he had been introduced to in the world of dreams, it would be gone and he would curse his dream self for ever giving him a taste of something he would forever be without.

Feeling her nose stroke against his neck, a shiver went through his masculine frame. One of his hands instinctively moved to the small of her back, drawing her that tiny inch closer and finding the most wonderful of resting places, slightly dipped under the hem of her shirt. Her silken soft skin under the rough patches of his fingers sent floating waves of electricity through his veins and threatened his decades worth of self-control. He yarned to be that little bit closer, to erase that short distance between them that could not be measured in inches or yards. He wanted to feel his hands gently trace the length of her spine while his lips would trail the softest of kisses from the skin beneath her ear, down the soft curve of her jaw and only stop when they met with their own kind, scorch them with the heat he felt and pray for her silent surrender to passion.

He could feel her quiet need to be closer too; in the way she brushed the tip of her nose against his skin, how she would inhale deeply against the collar of his shirt to capture his scent and the way her small body was pressed against his while trembling so delicately. Their invisible bond may be thinner and more fractured than ever before, but in some impossible way that would never be explained their connection seemed to be stronger than ever before, thin like a single tread of the finest of cobwebs, but strong like a wire of the most solid of metals.

"It's right, just not right now". Damon sighed, remembering his own words and once again acknowledging the trueness they beheld. Her arms tightened around his neck for a moment, like she feared he would let her go and transport them back to the present that had escaped them for some wonderful minutes, letting them bask in the glow of their shared affection while the troubles of the outside world was so mercifully held at bay. He smiled at the gesture, and nuzzled her ear with his nose to sooth.

There is a saying that says that everything will come to those that are patient enough to wait for it and Damon desperately believed it to be true. One day this beautiful, innocent girl would offer him his heart, and when that day come he would cherish it like he cherished this moment, caress it like his fingertips were caressing the base of her spine and embrace it like he was embracing her this very night. Because if you really love someone, patience seems as a fair price to pay, even for just one more stolen moment of eternity spent in the sweet confines of her gentle embrace.

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Thanks for reading:) Please remember to review:)


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